Chess
by abetternameneeded
Summary: Alice and Killian play chess, in a way. Prompted by: Stacey Dawe.


Alice Jones sat on her front porch reading a letter. She had read it a few times already. She had already sent her response through Robin. Now she was reading it again. She missed the person it was from so much. She hadn't seen him in years. She wanted to. But it was too risky. She couldn't. He might, no he _would _get hurt and she couldn't do that to him. Not after everything he had done for her.

She missed everything they used to do together. Pretending her toys were her crew on a pirate ship. Pretending the cleaning supplies wanted to stage a mutiny. Pretending that they were world travelers darting across realms even when they could only run a few feet before running out of space in their one roomed tower. Nearly everything was pretend. But the joy it had brought her as a child was nothing but real. And there had been some things that _were_ real. Papa teaching her how to cook. Papa teaching her how to read and swordfight. Papa teaching her so many things. She missed their chess games the most. She was his little rook. He was her white knight. A savior in a situation that was never fair to begin with. And it had only gotten worse. He'd been poisoned and ripped away from her when she was quite young. She missed him. And she was looking for a cure but all of her leads had failed. And one had even hurt him. But she'd keep looking. She set up her chess set and played. She knew how to play by herself. She'd been alone for years and she could entertain herself but she missed having an opponent. It wasn't near as much fun when you knew both sides' plan. And this chess board was missing two vital pieces. Neither side had it's full advantage. One was missing a rook and one was missing a knight. The playing field uneven. But she couldn't lose. She would win either way. She played until one side won, not that it matter which side. Alice would win or Alice would win. She wanted to play this game with papa. But she couldn't.

She went inside and went about her day. A week or so later she saw Robin approaching the cabin.

"Hi, Nobin!"

"Hey, tower girl, got a letter for you."

Alice smiled as Robin handed her the letter.

"What have you been up to today?"

"I played some chess, I won. But I always win." Alice's voice carried a tone of sadness. She spent so much time alone.

Robin felt for Alice. This wasn't her bragging about her skills at chess, although she was good at the game. It was her saying she missed having someone to play with.

"I don't know how to play, but I'll try. If you want?" Robin offered. Alice bounced a bit, excited. It'd be nice to play the game with someone else.

Alice set up the chess set and started explaing them game excitedly to her.

Robin tried to understand it but this game was not one you could get good at quickly. And Alice beat her in a mere few minutes every round they played. Some in even less time.

"I am not good at this," Robin admitted after she had lost more rounds than she would ever admit.

"Not as much fun if I win that quickly," Alice told her dejectedly. "I miss playing with papa."

"I know, wait. Can't you guys still play?" Robin asked.

Alice raised an eyebrow and waved the letter in her hand. "Robin, I can't go near him. Remember? That's why I don't come visit you."

"Yes, but Isn't there some way you can both set up boards and I don't know enough about chess. But you both play by yourself isn't there a way to tell each other your moves?"

"Nobin! That's bloody brilliant. When I was little papa taught me how to record the moves in chess. I don't know why, we didn't need to. But I learend it."

"Do you remeber how to do it?"

"Aye."

"Okay, then use it. Ask him whenever you write your letter,"

Alice nodded and opened the envelope to read his letter. She made sure to include Robin's idea in the letter and sent it off with her.

And the next time Robin returned with a letter there was a board set up. The letter reminded her that his board was missing a piece and hers was missing one as well. It was intentional. So each of them only had one knight and one rook on opposit sides. The pieces would be together again one day.

It took them months to finish a game that would only take a few hours if they could be together but it gave them a sense of still playing together. Sometimes Alice would be off looking for a cure so they couldn't play for weeks at a time. And sometimes Killian was bus helping with the rebellion but eventually they finished their very first game in years.

Alice had spent more time practicing than Kilian and she won the first match.

_Great job, Starfish! Ready for round 2? d2 to d4. And what was this about going to Oz with Robin? Did you two have fun?_

And they kept playing. Move by move being delivered in a sealed envelope attached to much longer letters, all hand delivered by Robin. It wasn't truly being together but at least with this it felt like they were a little bit closer, even when forced apart.

**A/N: Thanks yet again to the wonderful Stacey Dawe for an equally as wonderful prompt! "Alice and killian playinf chess through correspndance." and I tried to play a game to get a whole game of chess notatin but gave up after 3 moves bc the online game wouldn't let me remove pieces and the compuer's white side kept using it's knights.**


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